Oshii: Miyazaki wants to destroy Japan

In a very interesting LA Times Article, Mamoru Oshii and Ghibli Studio's Toshio Suzuki discuss the dying creativity of modern anime creators. The most cynical of the pair is Oshii who says:

Animation studios are surviving, animators are getting better paid, but the quality of new works is not improving ... On the surface, it's thriving...But in reality, there's very little new happening.

What I really got a kick out of was how the animators tended to quip at one another. Take Suzuki's comments on Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Steamboy):

There is only one theme in all his films: the conflict between adults and children. It's an old Japanese theme: The child fights against society, fights against evil. Otomo's thinking is rather old.

But the best comment of all came from Oshii who apparently thinks Miyazaki is a closet homicidal sociopath:

I think inside his head Miyazaki wants to destroy Japan ... But even though he knows his generation has created a nasty society, he has this hope that children will make a better world. So he makes movies that families and the children can enjoy. And it won't change until he makes the movies he really wants to make: bloody works; lots of bloodshed ... Miyazaki is hiding. He has a passion to destroy Japan, but he's not making what he really wants to make.

The article finishes up with Suzuki's insightful take on the personalities behind the animation:

Unlike his dark anime visions, Oshii is cheerful and easygoing in person, while "Miyazaki's personality, on the other hand, is very pessimistic," says Suzuki. "Miyazaki has to put a brake on his thinking" when making a movie to get those happy endings.

Hmm...